Where did February go?

I can't believe that February is over! It sure seems like time is moving a lot faster than it used to. Candice stayed overnight on Sunday. It was fun to have her home again. We didn't do much, just snuggled on the couch and played tetris but it was fun to have her here.

She always keeps us laughing and brings a lot of joy into our home.

Candice's friend Megan has been on American Idol this past week and it has been really fun to watch her. She has an amazing voice and is really beautiful too. She is really down to earth and funny, and the judges said they could see something special in her. She was chosen to be in the final 36 people. After singing wednesday night, everybody was supposed to vote. We called in quite a few times to vote for her. Then on thursday night they told us how the voting had gone. They had 4 people up there and said that one of them was going to go on. Then they eliminated two of them and it was just Meg and another guy. Well they chose the guy to go on. It was pretty disappointing. They could still chose her for a "wild card" contestant though so were keeping our fingers crossed for that!

So when I was backing out of the garage to go to racquetball, I bashed into K.C.'s car. He had been parking on the road, so I didn't even think of him being there. There is really no excuse for it though. It made his front bumper fall half way off and put a big dent in the side of my car. dang it! Kelley had to come out and rip the bumper the rest of the way off. I felt so bad! K.C. is a sweetie though, he calls me and says "it's really ok mom, the bumper was being held on with rip ties anyway". K.C's car is really having a bad month. It has broken down about 4 times. Could have done without that. Anyway, I have taken large amounts of grief from the family this week for it. Thanks for making me laugh about it. You guys are the best!

K.C.'s bumper relocated to the garage.

Brother Wilcox class was really good this week. He was making a CD for Deseret Book and said we could come listen to the recording. He talked about the way that God sees us. These were some of the things that stood out to me.

God sees the power within us to do good and he places us in positions to do so.

When we see ourselves as God sees us we can rise to His expectations. When we see others as God sees them, we can help them to rise to his expectations.

God sees the polished character

God sees the smallest acts. In the hereafter, we will know how all our little acts effected peoples lives.

God sees we are worthy of his most precious gifts. This is God's way of saying "I need you all" we all need to contribute our gifts. "Hold them up so they can bring beauty and light to others."

God ceases to see negitives of the past.

God does not see with impatient, discouraged or anxious eyes. He hears our cry's..."don't give up on me...I'm trying, don't let me fail."Anyway I always come away from his class uplifted and with a renewed conviction to do better.

We have been having such great weather for february. This was just one of those days you have to get out and do something in the yard. We raked up pods and Lizzy poop.

Then you wouldn't believe what I found. I looked down and saw this patch of yellow and it was a dandilion already blooming! It gave me hope for spring and warm days...even if it was a weed!

I went up to spend a few days with mother this week. We had a real nice visit. I always love the time I can spend with her. She always has stories to tell about when she was younger. Her mind is so clear and she can remember names of friends and family and things that happened more than 60 years ago. She was telling me about milking the cow(named molly) when she was a little girl. She said her dad always liked her to go out to milk the cow with him because she would hold the cow's tail still so it didn't swipe her dad in the head with it. She told me about the horses they had that pulled the cultivator in the garden. She said she would walk along holding the horse while her dad guided the cultivator from behind. She talked about her best friend Margie and how they would meet on the corner there by the post office and walk into town to work at the sewing machine shop. She told me about a man that lived up the street from her that was deaf and dumb. His name was adolf. She would see him walking by house each day as he walked to Logan to get free bread from the bakery there. She said he had been disowned by his sister because she was embarassed of him because he was slightly retarded. Mom said they took meals over to his house quite often because her mother felt so sorry for him. She said that her mother was about the kindest person you would ever know. That must be where my mom got her compassion from. Anyway, she was telling me all these things and I was wishing I had a tape recorder!

Mark put together a CD with all these wonderful pictures of Mom and Dad and their relatives and gave it to the sisters for Christmas. What a treasure!

I was trying to fix mom's hair saturday morning and it was so long, I was having a hard time. We called her hair dresser to see if she could cut it, but she wasn't home. So mom says "why don't you just cut it?" Well I didn't think that was a good idea, but she said it would be fine, so I did it. It actually turned out pretty good. She was happy with it anyway.

Brenda had been in Salt Lake with Mark and Olya friday night and so she picked up Teina on her way home saturday morning. Then Leslie came over and we all went over to the Blue Bird to celebrate my birthday.

We have been kind of waiting for Teina to feel better to get together. She has been sick for about 3 months now. She has acid reflux and the doctor thinks she has depression too. She feels like she is on the verge of throwing up all the time! That is the worst feeling ever! They have tried some different medications, but haven't found anything that will help her. She has lost about 30 pounds cause she just can't eat. I sure hope they can find out what is wrong with her. I feel so bad for her.

We had a fun lunch then went back to mother's and opened birthday presents. It was so nice to all be together. I feel so lucky to have been born into this wonderful family. I love my sisters and my mom!

It's been a lovely cruise...

Last week Kelley and I were able to go on a wonderful cruise. We went with the Reynolds, Blymillers, and Northrups. I was kind of worried leaving K.C. home alone, but Candice assured me she would come over a lot and he was fine with it, so I guess it was just me...being a mom. Anyway we got on our way on friday about noon, got on the plane and then we sat there. and sat there and sat there. They kept telling us there was a delay with the air traffic controllers in Houston. The more time that went by, the more nervous we got because we had to meet a connecting flight in Houston to get to Ft. Lauderdale. Finally after an hour, our plane took off. When we got there, it was past the time for our flight to leave. We went running up to the customer service desk and the lady there said our flight had already left. We were like "well what are we supposed to do?" she said we would have to get on a flight the next day. We told her we had a hotel room reserved in Ft. Lauderdale and had to get on the boat at 1:00. She didn't really care. We were getting pretty fired up and this guy runs up and says they are holding the plane for us. So we all ran and got on the plane. We got lots of dirty looks from the passengers that had been waiting to take off.


When we got to Ft. Lauderdale, we were surprised at how cold it was there. They told us they had had record cold temperatures the past few days, and had lost a lot of crops because of it. When we got up the next morning to get on the boat, it was quite cool and windy. Not cruise weather!


The boat was just beautiful. It had only been out since December and was really nice. It always amazes me that something that big can float. It was called the Ruby Princess.














We found our rooms and explored the boat and all the wonderful places to eat! We were at sea the next day. It was still kind of stormy and windy. We tried to walk in the morning but it was so windy, it about blew us away! And even better..we got blown away right in front of the windows of the gym, so all the people in there were laughing at us. HA!

The next day we woke up to pouring rain in Jamaca. We thought maybe it would clear off later and we would get off the boat, but it didn't, and we didn't. Some people got off the boat and went to the falls there in Ocho Rios. We had hiked the falls when we were there before so we decided to skip it. We had a fun day at the gym and just sitting and talking with everybody.

The next day we were in Grand Cayman. It was a beautiful day and they took us to the island in smaller boats. We looked around in the shops there for a little while.















Then we went to a nice beach there.
















After we had had enough sun, we went back to the shopping area and went into a Margaritaville and had some chips and salsa. It was fun but really loud!













The next day we were in Cozumel.


We met a nice taxi driver that took us to a little resort where we could do about whatever we wanted to. There was a resturant, snorkling, beautiful beach. We went snorkling there and it was a lot of fun. They gave Kelley a bottle of fish food, and him and Terry and Dan delighted in throwing it on Stacey and I so the fish would attack us. It freaked me out at first, but then I just relaxed and quit thrashing around and the fish would come right up to my mask and look in at me. It was really cool. There was so many different beautiful fish.






















We went back to the shopping area for a little while and ate at Poncho and Leftys.















Kelley and Dan in little scootcoope.

We had wonderful dinners every night. We decided to use the anytime seating so we could eat when ever we wanted. We all enjoyed this because we didn't have to rush. The entertainment on the cruise was pretty good. They had a comedy impressionist that was really good. And also a comedian that was pretty funny. We didn't go to all the shows, but enjoyed just sitting around eating pizza and ice cream and laughing a lot. They had an amazing outdoor theater on this gigantic screen so you could sit out by the pool and watch movies or concerts. That was pretty cool.

The next day we were at sea. It was a beautiful day so after a trip to the gym, we sat outside and relaxed in the sun.

The last day we were at Princess Cays. It was such a pretty island. Very colorful and clean. They had a big buffet set up for us there with hamburgers, hotdogs, and chicken and salads and desserts.
















Stacey and Rick went out on a water weenie ride. She was nominated our cruise director and tried her best to get us to have some fun.









But this was mostly what we did...














All the local people there had their home made things out for sale and I bought a cute bag with Ariel on it and had them put Olivia's name on it. It was a fun day on that island. We had to pack up that night and put our luggage out so after that, Kelley and I just walked around the boat for a while (and ate...again)

Saturday we were supposed to be off the boat by about 9:00. It took a while to get a taxi to take us to the airport. This was while we were waiting for our ride...












Our flight didn't leave till 1:00 though so we went to the airport and got all checked in, then shopped around in the shops there. We ate some chips and salsa, then got on the plane. We had two stops on the way home, and in houston, they sat on the runway for about 20 minutes before taking off. We had a pretty close connection time in Denver, and when we got there, it was time for the plane to leave. Well we started running for the other gate but it was clear at the other end of the airport. The guys ran as fast as they could, and we tried to keep up but by the time we got to the gate, they were all yelling at us to hurry up, the plane was leaving! Everybody was pooped by the time we got home at about 7:30. (can't complain though because Rick and Stacey were on a different flight that had to make 3 stops and didn't get home till 11:30! )

Then we realized that our luggage had not got on the plane with us. So we would have to come back at 11:00 to get it. Continental Airlines is officially my least favorite airline. (There was a terrible plane crash that killed 50 people in Buffalo NY this week that was due to pilot error on a Continental plane)
K.C. came to pick us up, and when we got home it was so nice to find the house wonderfully clean and everything in order! He's such a good kid. He did just fine without us! It was such a fun week with my sweetie and great friends, but it is always good to be home.

Melody of Love

I just wanted to say that I really love that K.C. loves to play the piano! He hasn't had any real piano lessons except from me trying to teach him what I know ...which is not a lot. He has a good ear for it though and is doing really well. I found this book of worlds famous piano classics at mom's and brought it home and he has been working his way through it. I really admire that! They are pretty advanced and he is doing a great job with them. He is also working on some really pretty arrangements of some of my favorite church songs. "How Great Thou Art", "Oh My Father" "I'll go where you want me to go" I love that we share this same love and appreciation for beautiful music.

We have had some great-some horrifying experiences playing the piano in sacrement meeting. We played a duet of "Love at home" a few years ago that went just fine. Then we played
"Joseph Smith's first prayer" that one was harder and took a lot of work. But it was fun practicing together. This last time we played "Praise to the Man". It waas pretty hard but we felt ok about it when we got there. Then when we got up there to play it was like the worst nightmare. We sat down and everything looked foreign. It looked like K.C. was going to be starting to play in the wrong place, so I said " I think that is wrong!" So he came down an octive lower and as soon as we started we could tell it was wrong. So we stopped and I said a very intense prayer in my head. Then we started again ...everything was clear, and we played it just fine. I felt so bad cause I totally messed K.C. up. That has happened one other time when I was playing for the ward choir to sing in sacrement meeting. I totally lost my place in the music and didn't catch up till almost the end of the song. Oh well, I hope I didn't warp K.C. so much that he won't ever play with me again. I've mentioned that Jaydene wants another piano piece from us and he is just like "uhhh maybe it would be easier to play alone." Oh Man. Can't say that I blame him. Anyway I'm just really proud of him. Not just for his piano playing skills, but for just being the really great kid that he is. I don't know what we ever did to deserve him, but he is a pretty special person and I feel so blessed to be his mom.

Love to Bonnie...

So I wanted to tell about the experience I had being involved in this area Relief Society Choir. I had kind of put it in the back of my mind, but then Colleen brought over the CD of the preformance and the memories came flooding back. They announced in church that they were putting together a choir to sing the songs that different women had written, or their verion of a song that was already written. The one's we learned were the winners of all the one's submitted. Well I thought this sounded fun so I went to the first practice with Colleen, and Nancy. We walked into the chapel and it was packed with women. The conductor was Leah Terrant, the choir director at Taylorsville High. She had come up to girls camp last summer
and had done a fireside for the girls. That was another story...when the girls saw her pull into the camp they totally swarmed her car. She is very much loved by them all. It was easy to see why after being around her just a few minutes, you realize she is one ot those special people that you are just drawn to. Anyway, when we walked in I talked to her for a minute, then she started to work her magic.She is so full of energy that it wears you out just to watch her. She has a most unusual way of getting people to sing for her, but it was so much fun that we were just all laughing the whole time. Even the stuffy old ladies that had kind of rolled their eyes at her at first were laughing and having fun by the time we finished our first practice. She had asked a lady named Bonnie that had played the piano for her at Taylorsville a few years ago to be the pianist. Only problem was that she had moved to Logan. She drove down to Salt Lake EVERY Sunday for 10 weeks. That is where the "love to bonnie" came in. every week Leah would recognize that Bonnie had just driven the 2 hours to be there and accompany us, so she would say " give your love to bonnie" and I know she could feel the love we were all sending her. She is an amazing pianist. The music was VERY hard and she never messed up! It was like her and Leah could read each other's minds, and you could feel the love they had for each other. Pretty soon we all loved them too.

The next sunday, there was about half as many people there. The music had been very difficult and she said we couldn't miss any practices because it was going to take every one to learn these songs. I think that might have weeded out some that couldn't make that commitment. Anyway the weeks went on and every time it was like an amazing uplifting experience to sing these beautiful songs. Leah is a total perfectionist and expected nothing less from all of us. We were working toward the big preformance on December 3rd. As we learned the songs, it just got funner cause it sounded so beautiful. It was like every practice we came away a little better person for being there. She always left us with a message that one of the songs taught us or something to think about or her testimony.

The night of the preformance, we all went up to the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. Our families all came up later. It was pretty exciting to sing to this audiance of composers and our family and friends. Sally DeFord had written one of the songs and Janice Kapp Perry had too. The preformance went really well. K.C. Candice and Kelley were pretty amused by watching Leah direct the choir. Some of the things she does are pretty funny, but we were used to it by then. Then on the last song, I think we all realized this was going to be the last time we would sing together. Leah started crying and all of the rest of us did too. The spirit was so strong there..it was pretty amazing.

I had some serious withdrawls after it was over to not be singing those songs with those ladies every sunday, but I have wonderful memories of the experience and now a CD I can listen to and sing along with. This is a picture of Leah and her cute family.






Love to Leah...Love to Bonnie..Love to all the dear ladies in the choir and the amazing composers.





An Email I got from Colleen...

guess what?‏
From:
C Poole (fraz52@comcast.net)
Sent:
Mon 11/17/08 5:49 PM
To:
Paula Jensen (pj1459@hotmail.com); Nancy Mendenhall (nlmrm@hotmail.com); June Pope (homehere@comcast.net)
.I talked with Sally Thomson at Marcie's dance class today, and she asked me if I heard the feedback that our choir got on Friday night. Of course, I hadn't. She said the people in the light and sound booth told them that they had never heard a R.S. choir sound so good in all their years of doing those performances. Then Janice Kapp Perry told them that she had been attending these concerts for 20 years and she had never heard a R.S. choir that sounded so good.

Cool, huh? It was a delightful experience!
¸..·*´¨¨~-:¦:- ¸.·´ ..·´¨¨)) ((¸¸.·´ ..·´ *-:¦:- Colleen -:¦:- -:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*